Tag: blog

For a woman carrying a handbag around with the kitchen sink in seems to be the norm. But do we really need to be carrying around all these things? Probably not.

The first problem we all face is which bag? So many bags! You find one…it’s too small. You find another…it’s too big. Luckily I have found the perfect bag! This is the first, most expensive, designer handbag I have EVER brought. But it is beautiful, so oh well! Shout out to Kurt Geiger for making fabulous bags! (See below.)

#1 – A makeup bag: makeup, lip balm

Essential for keeping all your little things together. In mine I keep my lip balms, mascara, blusher and brush. Just in case, you never know when you need to have a touch-up.

#2 – Compact mirror

The compact mirror, the trusty mirror! You never know when you need to check your makeup or reapply your lip balm, and to do that you need your mirror! I always put mine in my makeup bag.

#3 – Hair bobbles and clips

You never know when you’ll need a bobble or hair clips. I always keep them in my bag just in case the weather changes or I’m in a rush and need to put my hair up or out of my face.

#4 – Hair brush

Again, if I need to sort my hair out a hair brush is what I need to save the day. If it’s in my bag it’s a win-win situation.

#5 – Headphones

Don’t be the person who forgets their headphones, because there simply is nothing more annoying than getting on the bus in the morning and reaching into your handbag to find NO HEADPHONES.

If that happens then the whole day is ruined because now you must listen to Polly tell her friend Sally all about her emotional break up and you have to listen to the awful music playing out loud at the back of the bus by the teenager at the back of the bus with their hood up…. And that then results in you needing painkillers.

#6 – Notebook

Notebooks are essential, especially in my handbag. Being a Journalism student means that I could need to take notes at any time. Whether that be a lecture or interviewing someone for an article.

#7 – Diary

If I want my life to be anywhere near organised, I MUST have my diary. I need to have it with me because there’s always something going on. I always check my diary for deadlines or events happening in the area etc. It’s handy to keep in my handbag because then I can just use it when I’m out and about to jot things down. So, to keep organised….keep your diary in your bag.

#8 – Pen

If you have the previous items, you would need a pen…or in my case, several pens. You always need to have a pen in your bag because you never know when you might need one, or when someone might want to use a pen.

#9 – Tissues

Tissues are a must! You could have a cold, be upset, someone else could be upset or it could be hay fever season. These things could spring on you at any time so it’s good to keep these to hand.

#10 – Wipes

I love to keep these in my bag. These are ideal for when you’re rushing around working up a sweat, if you’ve been to the gym or it’s a hot day. They are a great way to freshen up! I only buy the small packets as they are easy and light to carry around.

They are also great if you spill something or get anything down yourself.

#11 – Feminine products

Now, being a woman this is a MUST. One of the most important things to carry in your bag, ever. We’ve all been caught out before, come on girls – admit it, it’s not nice at all. There simply is nothing worse when your time of the month appears out of nowhere, but then not having any products to hand. What a disaster. Don’t let that be you, ALWAYS carry a few products spare. Just in case!

#12 – Sanitiser and hand lotion

You never know when you might need hand sanitiser. You may touch a sticky door handle, sneeze into your hand or shake someone’s sweaty hand… you just never know! So be sure to always carry around a small bottle, to help fight those germs!

Hand cream is a MUST. Throughout the day, when I’m typing or writing my hands get really dried out. So keeping hand cream in my back is a saviour, it’s small so it fits perfectly into my bag and it smells divine.

#13 – Mints and medication

Now, no one wants to be that person with bad breath after they have just been for lunch. I love food, so it’s good to enjoy it. But check your breathe and have a mint, just to be on the safe side. You never know who you might be meeting with!

Medication, is important. Whether that being prescription or paracetamol. I made the mistake once of forgetting my vertigo medication, and I had a dizzy spell making me ill. I have never made the same mistake since.

#14 – Snack

Again with food…like I said before, I love food. So having a snack in your bag is ideal. If it stops you from going to McDonald’s then it’s great!

#15 – Spray

You know when you have those days where you just need to freshen yourself up, it’s hot or you’ve been rushing around. Just grab your bag, get your spray or perfume out and I guarantee it makes you feel one hundred times better.

#16 – Purse

Always carry your purse around with you and keep cash on you! You never know when you might need to get a taxi or a train or food in emergency!

#17 – Keys

I for one am a nightmare for forgetting my keys. So always keep them in your handbag, once you have locked your door put them back in your bag!

Moral of the story, always have these things in your bag. You never know when you might need them!

We all have those go to products that we just can’t get enough of, don’t we? I know I certainly do! Here are the products that I use almost every day to make myself feel fresh and are affordable for everyone to buy!

#1 – Because you know I’m all about that base, ’bout that base…

I love Simple products and the clue is in the name. They’re simple, they don’t irritate my skin – which is great, because my skin is so sensitive and I’ll react to most things, so I have to choose my products wisely!

So I use the Day cream when I wake up, it just wakes my skin up and brings all of the moisture back into my skin. I love the texture of the cream, it’s very light and easy to apply. Although, a little goes a long way. I learnt that the hard way! This product costs £5.49 from Boots.

I also use the ‘Kind to eyes, revitalising eye roll on’ which I have to say is great for me. Some days I’ll wake up with bags under my eyes, that bad I should start charging them 5p to be there, so this sorts me right out! It gives my eyes that little lift that’s needed. It’s very cold to roll on, although that is what feels so refreshing to my eyes. Simple revitalising eye roll on costs £5.19 from Superdrug – but currently is on offer for £2.45!

The ‘Kind to skin micellar cleansing water’ and ‘Kind to skin soothing facial toner’ work a dream when getting make up off! There’s no perfume smell because it’s for sensitive skin, but I find the scent of it quite refreshing and it does just that when it’s on your skin!

The product gets rid of any last bits of make up that I may have missed with the wipes and makes my skin feel great! The cleansing water costs £4.95 and the toner costs £1.50, both products from Boots.

Overall I’d give all of these products a rating of 8/10.

#2 – May your foundation match your neck!

Ahhhh foundation. It’s so easy to get your shade wrong! We’ve all been there in year 7 with the orange face and the white neck, right? It was a steep learning curve, but we all got there eventually.

There are two affordable foundations that I switch between day to day!

No7 ‘Stay Perfect foundation’ does exactly what it says on the tin. For my skin, it’s great. It’s a very runny foundation in comparison with the Rimmel ‘Wake me up’ one. I always find I need to pump a little more out the bottle with the No7 foundation, in order to fully cover my face. It costs £14.50 from Boots and I use the shade Calico, due to my pale skin. Overall, it is a great product for every day use and I give it a 8/10.

The Rimmel London ‘Wake me up’ foundation is good. It gives my skin a light feeling when it’s applied, you can hardly feel it’s there. It’s quite a thick foundation, so a little goes a long way. If you apply too much you risk going back to your year 7 days and your face not matching your neck. One downfall it does have an orange colour to it, so again if you apply too much it is a disaster – trust me!

It’s affordable and practical, It costs £5.99 from Boots (great if your on a budget!) and I use the shade Ivory. Overall, good product for every day use especially if you’re on a budget. I give the ‘Wake me up’ foundation a 7/10.

#3 – Prime and Conceal

Concealer

Primer

I love a good primer and concealer – especially when it’s affordable!

My all time favourite concealer is Collection ‘lasting perfection’ concealer. For me it gives the best coverage! I apply it after my foundation to cover up any redness or spots that are still showing through! I would give this concealer a 9/10 as it’s coverage is fantastic, it’s perfect for my skin and it lasts all day! Although, with this product there is a downfall. That being there isn’t much of a variety of shades, luckily for me the shade I use matches my skin perfectly. It costs £4.19 from Boots and I use the shade fair shade 1.

I have also recently tried Maybelline ‘Instant Anti-age, the eraser eye, perfect and cover concealer.’ It’s a good product for erasing dark circles from under your eyes. It’s not the best product I have ever used but It is affordable. Overall I would give this product a 6/10. It costs £7.99 from Boots.

Primers! Maybelline New York ‘Baby skin instant pore eraser’ has been one of my favourites since I was a teenager. It’s one of those products that you always go back to! You only need a little bit to cover your face or certain areas. It’s such a lightweight primer and perfect to use under your foundation! Overall I give this a product 8/10, it costs £7.99 from Boots.

The MUA range of prime and conceal colour corrector’s are fantastic! I use the yellow one for under my eyes to tackle those dark circles and bags and the green to hide my red skin! I apply before my foundation and after my moisturiser, and it all works so well together! They are £2.00 each from Superdrug – it’s a bargain and works so well! I would give this product an 8/10.

#4 – You’ve got to get those chisel cheeks!

I love a good contour kit, I own quite a few. But my newest favourite is from Barry M. Their Chisel Cheeks contour kit is fabulous! A friend recommended it and I’d never used the brand before – only for nail varnish. So I took the plunge and tried it out. Honestly you won’t regret it!

It’s a powder so it’s fairly easy to apply with a brush, and also easy to blend with a beauty blender. In the kit there is a highlighter, a medium brown shade and a darker brown shade.

I brought the light to medium kit because of my fair skin but they do offer a medium to dark kit and contour and highlighting cream sticks (which I am yet to try!) Overall I would give this product a 9/10 as it is affordable at £6.49, it’s easy to apply and the shades are perfect to blend into my skin! One of my all time favourites!

#5 – So many lip products!

Ahhhh lip products, why are there so many to choose from?!

My absolute favourites are the Burts Bees ‘beeswax lip balm,’ it’s a dream! It gives your lips a little tingle once you’ve applied it. Once I have applied that I then put on my Clarins ‘instant light lip balm perfector’ which again is a lip balm but it’s like a lipstick. I use these both everyday and they work so well together, keeping my lips soft.

On the downside like all lip balms, you do need to keep applying them throughout the day. The Burts Bees lip balm costs £3.99 from boots, I would give it a 7/10 and the Clarins lip balm is not so affordable, it costs £18.50 and I would give it a 10/10. I would definitely recommend this product!

If I go out anywhere for a meal or a few drinks I love to use my L’Oreal Paris colour riche palette in Nude. The shades are perfect for my skin tone, very subtle and not too bright for me! Perfect for a night out. The palette costs £12.99 from Superdrug (I know, I’m shocked it’s not Boots either.) They also do the palette in red, if you’re brave enough to wear red on your lips – go for it girls! Overall I’d give it a 8/10.

I’ll be back soon with the next part of my affordable products that gets me through the day!

It’s crazy when you think about how many different accents make up the UK! And they are all completely different. So it’s no wonder when you move out of your area that not many people understand certain things you say!

Being from the Black Country (Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and outlying parts of the city of Wolverhampton in the English county of West Midlands) can be difficult, especially when you live in the North East. This is purely down to the Mackem dialect being completely different from the Black Country dialect.

I do often get mistaken for a “brummie.” Birmingham and the Black Country are geographically very close but our dialect is miles apart. Don’t get us mixed up – we don’t like it! It’s like calling a Mackem a Geordie, vice versa – they don’t like it either!

I know what you’re thinking – Do people really speak like that? Yep. Yes we do. It’s an accent that’s hard to shake, my accent isn’t as broad since I have moved away but boy do you know it’s there!

There are words that I say no matter how hard I try to stop them coming out of my mouth, they just come out of my mouth naturally. Words such as:

Babby – Baby

It ay – It isn’t

Ay – Haven’t

Ar – Yes

All round the Wrekin – Scenic route (This is one of the words that I never knew since moving away – I always thought all round the Wrekin was the only word, obviously not.)

Cor – Can’t

Coot – Coat

Dae – Didn’t

Duwer – Door

Med – Made

Mek – Make

Tae – Tea (This is for both food as in dinner or tea, the drink)

Wench – Girl

Mush – Mate

Yow – You

It’s not only just an accent, it’s our very own dialect and vocabulary. I’m not sure if we have a dictionary, like the Mackem Dictionary, but if we haven’t we definitely need our own one!

Not going to lie to you all, ever since I were little this has always been a ‘buzz’ as in the noise a bee makes. I literally have to stop the noise coming out of my mouth when I say ‘bus.’

There are many words and phrases that I say day to day and people must look at me and think…

I feel a bit like Del Boy sometimes when I talk, “si danke schon, bonjour,” everyone laughs and doesn’t know what I’m saying. Although, strangely enough I do get a lot of ‘oh I love your accent’ I’m not sure if they’re being sarcastic or being serious.

As I live in the North East let’s take a look at some of the words and phrases used in Sunderland.

At 0:49 in the previous video you hear the word Stottie. Now there is a heated debate about this, so many people have different words for a ‘bread roll’. I personally call it a ‘cob,’ which I think is normal until I moved to Sunderland. Apparently, that’s not what it’s called. Some people call it a ‘roll’ or a ‘bap.’ Please let me know what you call this roll of bread! Leave a comment or tweet me @Charlotte___P23.